When a family decides to buy a swimming pool, they must originally decide between an in ground or above ground type pool. The advantages of an above ground pool include substantially lower costs and the ability to construct same on smaller plots of ground. In addition, above ground pools can be taken down for storage at the end of the user's season, or moved to another location should the purchaser buy another home. All swimming pools, above and below ground alike, require filtration systems and periodic maintenance. This maintenance includes the necessity to remove surface dirt and debris, and to remove suspended particles such as dust, pollen and other particulates from the water.
The filtration systems normally employed with swimming pools include a pump, suitable piping and a skimmer outlet or trough. The skimmer trough is located within the pool, usually at the top of the water surface at the end of the pool in which the prevailing winds will blow the debris and dust in said pool. The skimmer outlet is piped to be in fluid communication to a filtration system which includes the above mentioned pump and a diatonaceous earth or other filter media which is known to the art and which forms no part of this invention. From the filter medium the water, having been cleansed, is piped back into the swimming pool.
While current filtration systems for above ground swimming pools are indeed operable, they are costly insofar as the amount of energy required to operate same due to low efficiency By low efficiency it is meant that it will take approximately ten hours of filtration during the peak pool season, namely June, July and August of most locations, in order to filter the average above ground swimming pool. One of the reasons attributed by applicant to the excessive time required to cleanse such pools is the fact that there is currently not available in the marketplace any means to aid in the operation of the filtration system by directing the surface dirt, dust and particulate matter to the skimmer outlet. It was due to applicant's desire to conserve energy in these progressive times that led him to devise the device of this invention.
Accordingly it is one object of this invention to disclose a novel skimming device to be used primarily with above ground swimming pools.
Another object of this invention is to disclose a skimming device that is low in cost and which is easy to operate.
Still another object is to prepare a device which can be used to aid in the removal of dirt and debris from above ground, primarily, swimming pools.
Another object is the disposition of a product which is substantially inert and which will have no effect on the swimming pool water.
A further object of this invention is to disclose a device which can be set in place by a child and which is easy to operate in view of the fact that it has no moving parts.
Yet another further object is to disclose a skimmer device which can be left in place in the swimming pool at all times if such is desired by the owner and which will not interfer with swimmers in a hazardous fashion.
Other objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the product possessing the features, properties and the relation of components which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.